Allium sphaerocephalonL.

roundheaded leek

WFO wfo-0000757393 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Allium sphaerocephalon, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. a Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-10-23 / obs. 165129995
Allium sphaerocephalon, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. b Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 144472591
Allium sphaerocephalon, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. c Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 144461814
Allium sphaerocephalon, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. d Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 144470635
Allium sphaerocephalon, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. e Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 144466464
Allium sphaerocephalon, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. f Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 143150443
Allium sphaerocephalon, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. g Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 142419726
Allium sphaerocephalon, photographed by Carminda Santos
fig. h Carminda Santos, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 141171277

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 38 botanical countries

Regions where Allium sphaerocephalon is native: Algeria, Canary Is., Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Kuwait, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Türkiye, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaEgyptMoroccoTunisiaCyprusEast Aegean Is.KuwaitLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusTürkiyeAlbaniaAustriaBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine Canary Is.BalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Allium sphaerocephalon, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Kuwait KUW
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Türkiye TUR
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Canary Is. CNY
Egypt EGY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 605 in flower of 761 examined

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Allium sphaerocephalon observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 605 of 761 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 51 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Allium aegaeum Heldr. & Halácsy
  • Allium aestivum Tineo
  • Allium approximatum Gren. & Godr.
  • Allium arvense Guss.
  • Allium arvense subsp. aestivum (Tineo) Nyman
  • Allium arvense var. tenuiflorum Nyman
  • Allium arvense var. trachypus (Boiss. & Spruner) Nyman
  • Allium atroviolaceum Hornem. ex Steud.
  • Allium borbasii A.Kern.
  • Allium bosniacum Kumm. & Sendtn.
  • Allium cornutum Kit.
  • Allium crinitum Tausch
  • Allium densiflorum De Not.
  • Allium descendens L.
  • Allium deseglisei Boreau
  • Allium eminens Gren. ex Parl.
  • Allium gherardi De Not.
  • Allium lineare Ten.
  • Allium loscosii K.Richt.
  • Allium macrocephalum Kit.
  • Allium margaritaceum var. robustum Maire
  • Allium parviflorum Desv.
  • Allium parviflorum L.
  • Allium parvifolium Crantz

and 27 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol ALSP4. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.